The Bank of Russia has developed and tested on an Ethereum-based blockchain prototype called ‘Masterchain’ for financial messaging, to be used by banks in Russia. The Bank of Russia, the country’s central bank, has developed a technical prototype called ‘Masterchain’. The prototype is based on distributed ledger or blockchain technology for the Russian financial market, […]

Ether Camp, organizers of the biggest hackathon in the blockchain space, with now 1,086 hackers taking part, is to launch a new token – Hacker Gold – through which start-up tokens can be acquired. Roman Mandeleil, founder of Ether Camp, which is to hold its second hackathon in November, told CCN: [W]hat is unique is that […]

Today marks a significant day for Ross Ulbricht, founder of Silk Road, as he rests his hopes on an appeal that could see him spending any part of his sentence outside prison. Before Silk Road was seized by the FBI in 2013, it was considered as the most sophisticated marketplace on the Internet. Attracting people […]

What is bitcoin? What is the blockchain? How does it work? Who is behind it? Find the answer to all of these questions and more by tuning into the six-episode series Trust Disrupted: Bitcoin & the Blockchain. The series features Nathaniel Popper, a New York Times reporter and the author of the book on which the series is based, along with various bitcoin developers, influencers and… Read More

A new report by business management consultancy Oliver Wyman suggests that if the UK decides on a "hard" Brexit (by which it would lose access to the single market), the UK economy stands to lose £18 billion to £20 billion ($23 billion to $25 billion) in revenue, £3 billion to £5 billion ($4 billion to $6 billion) in taxes, with 31,000 to 35,000 jobs put at risk.

However, the report added that a hard Brexit might benefit the UK's fintech sector.

Here are the areas in which it says a hard Brexit could benefit UK fintechs:

Regulation. At the moment, UK fintechs have to comply with EU regulations, not all of which are favorable to UK businesses. In the case of a Brexit, the UK could choose which laws most benefit its companies and implement them on its own timescale, easing the regulatory burden on domestic fintechs. That said, any UK firms that still want to trade with Europe would still have to comply with EU laws.

Immigration. Right now, anyone from the EU can come to work in the UK without a visa. However, UK fintechs often struggle to find all the skills they need within this talent pool alone. Brexit could enable the UK to prioritize entry for immigrants, from anywhere, with the skills fintechs need. For example, it could simplify the visa process and make it less expensive for companies looking to hire further afield than the EU.

The impact of a hard Brexit on the traditional financial services sector might compel the UK government to ensure the country's fintech sector flourishes. It would be in the government's interest to offset any damage to the economy caused by the barring of incumbents from the EU market.

A hard Brexit could therefore drive the government to devote drastically more resources to creating a comfortable regulatory environment for fintechs, enabling them to focus on growth and efficiency, and thereby continue attracting investment. This is backed by the argument that a Brexit could save the UK £23 million ($34 million) in EU membership fees, which could be invested in fintech.

It is worth noting, however, that there is no guarantee such money would go to this sector, or even that it would be enough to offset the loss in foreign investment a Brexit could cause.

In addition, if UK fintechs were to lose access to the broader EU market, other continental cities may be in a position to steal London's fintech crown. Given the still considerable uncertainty surrounding Brexit, complacency about its potential effects on the UK fintech market is risky at this stage.

This situation bears watching as we move through the most profound era of change for financial services companies since the 1970s brought us index mutual funds, discount brokers and ATMs.

No firm is immune from the coming disruption and every company must have a strategy to harness the powerful advantages of the new fintech revolution.

The battle already underway will create surprising winners and stunned losers among some of the most powerful names in the financial world: The most contentious conflicts (and partnerships) will be between startups that are completely reengineering decades-old practices, traditional power players who are furiously trying to adapt with their own innovations, and total disruption of established technology & processes:

Traditional Retail Banks vs. Online-Only Banks: Traditional retail banks provide a valuable service, but online-only banks can offer many of the same services with higher rates and lower fees

Traditional Lenders vs. Peer-to-Peer Marketplaces: P2P lending marketplaces are growing much faster than traditional lenders—only time will tell if the banks strategy of creating their own small loan networks will be successful

Traditional Asset Managers vs. Robo-Advisors: Robo-advisors like Betterment offer lower fees, lower minimums and solid returns to investors, but the much larger traditional asset managers are creating their own robo-products while providing the kind of handholding that high net worth clients are willing to pay handsomely for.

As you can see, this very fluid environment is creating winners and losers before your eyes…and it’s also creating the potential for new cost savings or growth opportunities for both you and your company.

After months of researching and reporting this important trend, Evan Bakker, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has put together an essential report on the fintech ecosystem that explains the new landscape, identifies the ripest areas for disruption, and highlights the some of the most exciting new companies. These new players have the potential to become the next Visa, Paypal or Charles Schwab because they have the potential to transform important areas of the financial services industry like:

Retail banking

Lending and Financing

Payments and Transfers

Wealth and Asset Management

Markets and Exchanges

Insurance

Blockchain Transactions

If you work in any of these sectors, it’s important for you to understand how the fintech revolution will change your business and possibly even your career. And if you’re employed in any part of the digital economy, you’ll want to know how you can exploit these new technologies to make your employer more efficient, flexible and profitable.

Among the big picture insights you'll get from The Fintech Ecosystem Report: Measuring the effects of technology on the entire financial services industry:

Why financial technology is so disruptive to financial services—it will soon change the nature of almost every financial activity, from banking to payments to wealth management.

The basic conflict will be between old firms and new—startups are re-imagining financial services processes from top to bottom, while incumbent financial services firms are trying to keep up with new products of their own.

Both sides face serious obstacles—traditional banks and financial services firms are investing heavily in innovation, but leveraging their investments is difficult with so much invested in legacy systems and profit centers.

Meanwhile, startups are struggling to navigate a rapidly-changing regulatory landscape and must scale up quickly with limited resources.

The blockchain is a wild card that could completely overhaul financial services. Both major banks and startups around the world are exploring the technology behind the blockchain, which stores and records Bitcoin transactions. This technology could lower the cost of many financial activities to near-zero and could wipe away many traditional banking activities completely.

This exclusive report also:

Explains the main growth drivers of the exploding fintech ecosystem.

Frames the challenges and opportunities faced by incumbents and startups.

Breaks down global and regional fintech investments, including which regions are the most significant and which are poised for the highest growth.

Reveals which two financial services are garnering the most investment, and are therefore likely to be transformed first and fastest by fintech

Explains why blockchain technology is critically important to banks and startups, and assesses which players stand to gain the most from it.

Explores the financial sectors facing disruption and breaks them down in terms of investments, vulnerabilities and growth opportunities.

And much more.

The Fintech Ecosystem Report: Measuring the effects of technology on the entire financial services industry is how you get the full story on the fintech revolution.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide to the fintech revolution, choose one of these options:

Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP

Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the fast-moving world of financial technology.

Readers may remember our coverage of a Roger Ver interview from a few days ago where the veteran Bitcoiner and entrepreneur told Bitcoin Uncensored that Lightning Network was still untested and could take a long time to get off the ground. At the time, he was right. But this morning CCN can report that a […]

The CFPB, the government agency overseeing consumer protection in the financial sector has not included bitcoin and other virtual currencies and related products from its new prepaid regulatory requirements. Virtual currencies like bitcoin and related products are outside the scope of a newly amended prepaid regulation [PDF] by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB), a […]

Press Release: Nav Coin’s New Anonymous Send Beta Testing Is Proving The System Is Rock Solid Last week the Nav Coin team released the white paper for their new anonymous send system and began beta testing. The relaunch of the anonymous network is scheduled for public release later this month. Nav Coin developer Craig MacGregor announced […]

Open source bitcoin startup Blockstream, notable for its foray into developing sidechains for the bitcoin blockchain will now see a CEO at its helm. In a recent announcement, Blockstream revealed a unanimous decision by the company’s board of director that saw Blockstream co-founder Adam Back become CEO of the company. Back held the role of […]

A senior Bank of Japan (BoJ) official has stated that bitcoin and other Fintech innovation isn’t a threat to the fiat money central banks print. According to Hiromi Yamaoka, head of the BoJ’s payment and settlement systems department, central banks need to maintain the public’s trust. This is because the growth of FinTech provides people with […]

Santander UK has created a £200,000 ($255,000) fund, called the Changemaker Fund, which will be used to invest in small businesses via a new partnership with equity crowdfunding platform Crowdfunder.

The partnership will focus on funding community projects, charities, and businesses aimed at social change, according to the Financial Times.

Santander's approach marks a departure from traditional equity crowdfunding. Typically, equity crowdfunding refers to when a group of people invest in a small business in return for shares. However, contributions from the Changemaker Fund will be donations. Once a project has been approved by Santander, it will need to raise 50% of its funding target via Crowdfunder's platform from investors. Santander will then donate the remaining 50%, up to £10,000 ($13,000).

The bank is partnering with alt finance platforms to expand its small- and medium-enterprise business. Santander already has a referral agreement with UK marketplace lenderFunding Circle, as well as a partnership with alternative finance firm Kabbage, whereby it leverages the fintech's advanced credit checking technology to speed up the loan application process for small businesses. This latest partnership adds a crowdfunding platform to Santander's clutch of partnerships. It is likely that Santander is testing different forms of alternative finance to see which technologies and business models best suit its own aims before fully committing to one.

We think the bank will start to move away from partnerships and toward acquisitions once it has determined which technologies it prefers. This will likely put it in direct competition with the remaining alt finance platforms, some of which it currently collaborates with. We expect to see this trend across the alternative finance segment, which will likely further add to alternative fiance platforms' woes.

Banks such as Santander have clearly recognized that we’ve entered the most profound era of change for financial services companies since the 1970s brought us index mutual funds, discount brokers and ATMs.

No firm is immune from the coming disruption and every company must have a strategy to harness the powerful advantages of the new fintech revolution.

The battle already underway will create surprising winners and stunned losers among some of the most powerful names in the financial world: The most contentious conflicts (and partnerships) will be between startups that are completely reengineering decades-old practices, traditional power players who are furiously trying to adapt with their own innovations, and total disruption of established technology & processes:

Traditional Retail Banks vs. Online-Only Banks: Traditional retail banks provide a valuable service, but online-only banks can offer many of the same services with higher rates and lower fees

Traditional Lenders vs. Peer-to-Peer Marketplaces: P2P lending marketplaces are growing much faster than traditional lenders—only time will tell if the banks strategy of creating their own small loan networks will be successful

Traditional Asset Managers vs. Robo-Advisors: Robo-advisors like Betterment offer lower fees, lower minimums and solid returns to investors, but the much larger traditional asset managers are creating their own robo-products while providing the kind of handholding that high net worth clients are willing to pay handsomely for.

As you can see, this very fluid environment is creating winners and losers before your eyes…and it’s also creating the potential for new cost savings or growth opportunities for both you and your company.

After months of researching and reporting this important trend, Evan Bakker, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has put together an essential report on the fintech ecosystem that explains the new landscape, identifies the ripest areas for disruption, and highlights the some of the most exciting new companies. These new players have the potential to become the next Visa, Paypal or Charles Schwab because they have the potential to transform important areas of the financial services industry like:

Retail banking

Lending and Financing

Payments and Transfers

Wealth and Asset Management

Markets and Exchanges

Insurance

Blockchain Transactions

If you work in any of these sectors, it’s important for you to understand how the fintech revolution will change your business and possibly even your career. And if you’re employed in any part of the digital economy, you’ll want to know how you can exploit these new technologies to make your employer more efficient, flexible and profitable.

Among the big picture insights you'll get from The Fintech Ecosystem Report: Measuring the effects of technology on the entire financial services industry:

Why financial technology is so disruptive to financial services—it will soon change the nature of almost every financial activity, from banking to payments to wealth management.

The basic conflict will be between old firms and new—startups are re-imagining financial services processes from top to bottom, while incumbent financial services firms are trying to keep up with new products of their own.

Both sides face serious obstacles—traditional banks and financial services firms are investing heavily in innovation, but leveraging their investments is difficult with so much invested in legacy systems and profit centers.

Meanwhile, startups are struggling to navigate a rapidly-changing regulatory landscape and must scale up quickly with limited resources.

The blockchain is a wild card that could completely overhaul financial services. Both major banks and startups around the world are exploring the technology behind the blockchain, which stores and records Bitcoin transactions. This technology could lower the cost of many financial activities to near-zero and could wipe away many traditional banking activities completely.

This exclusive report also:

Explains the main growth drivers of the exploding fintech ecosystem.

Frames the challenges and opportunities faced by incumbents and startups.

Breaks down global and regional fintech investments, including which regions are the most significant and which are poised for the highest growth.

Reveals which two financial services are garnering the most investment, and are therefore likely to be transformed first and fastest by fintech

Explains why blockchain technology is critically important to banks and startups, and assesses which players stand to gain the most from it.

Explores the financial sectors facing disruption and breaks them down in terms of investments, vulnerabilities and growth opportunities.

And much more.

The Fintech Ecosystem Report: Measuring the effects of technology on the entire financial services industry is how you get the full story on the fintech revolution.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide to the fintech revolution, choose one of these options:

Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP

Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the fast-moving world of financial technology.

The Bank of Ireland plans to invest €500 million ($588 million) in upgrades to its core IT infrastructures over the next five years or so, according to the Irish Times.

Part of this investment will go toward updating its core banking platform, which will include support not only for new digital customer facing channels, but also advanced data analytics and compliance solutions. The updates highlight the bank's intention to transform both its back-end functions and customer experience.

Incumbents are increasingly realizing the need to upgrade their core systems in a rapidly-digitizing landscape. Bank of Ireland's move appears to be in line with a recent trend of banks waking up to the notion that simply developing front-end digital products will not be enough if they want to compete with digital-native fintechs.

North American banks, in particular, have been investing heavily in digitally transforming their entire businesses, but until now EMEA banks havelagged behind. The Bank of Ireland's announcement, along with with Dutch bank ING's recently publicized digital transformation efforts, suggest that European banks at least are acknowledging the problem.

Digital overhauls of banks' core systems are risky, but unavoidable. A quarter of attempted core banking transformations fail entirely, while half do not deliver expected outcomes, according to Cognizant — which estimates that only 25% of digital overhauls are successful. In spite of this, ignoring the need for digital transformation could leave incumbents far worse off, thanks to the growing threat from fintechs and new digitally focused challenger banks.

The fact that Bank of Ireland is investing so much in this project suggests that it thinks the move is unavoidable, and we expect to see more banks reaching this tipping point soon.

Banks such as the Bank of Ireland have clearly recognized that we’ve entered the most profound era of change for financial services companies since the 1970s brought us index mutual funds, discount brokers and ATMs.

No firm is immune from the coming disruption and every company must have a strategy to harness the powerful advantages of the new fintech revolution.

The battle already underway will create surprising winners and stunned losers among some of the most powerful names in the financial world: The most contentious conflicts (and partnerships) will be between startups that are completely reengineering decades-old practices, traditional power players who are furiously trying to adapt with their own innovations, and total disruption of established technology & processes:

Traditional Retail Banks vs. Online-Only Banks: Traditional retail banks provide a valuable service, but online-only banks can offer many of the same services with higher rates and lower fees

Traditional Lenders vs. Peer-to-Peer Marketplaces: P2P lending marketplaces are growing much faster than traditional lenders—only time will tell if the banks strategy of creating their own small loan networks will be successful

Traditional Asset Managers vs. Robo-Advisors: Robo-advisors like Betterment offer lower fees, lower minimums and solid returns to investors, but the much larger traditional asset managers are creating their own robo-products while providing the kind of handholding that high net worth clients are willing to pay handsomely for.

As you can see, this very fluid environment is creating winners and losers before your eyes…and it’s also creating the potential for new cost savings or growth opportunities for both you and your company.

After months of researching and reporting this important trend, Evan Bakker, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has put together an essential report on the fintech ecosystem that explains the new landscape, identifies the ripest areas for disruption, and highlights the some of the most exciting new companies. These new players have the potential to become the next Visa, Paypal or Charles Schwab because they have the potential to transform important areas of the financial services industry like:

Retail banking

Lending and Financing

Payments and Transfers

Wealth and Asset Management

Markets and Exchanges

Insurance

Blockchain Transactions

If you work in any of these sectors, it’s important for you to understand how the fintech revolution will change your business and possibly even your career. And if you’re employed in any part of the digital economy, you’ll want to know how you can exploit these new technologies to make your employer more efficient, flexible and profitable.

Among the big picture insights you'll get from The Fintech Ecosystem Report: Measuring the effects of technology on the entire financial services industry:

Why financial technology is so disruptive to financial services—it will soon change the nature of almost every financial activity, from banking to payments to wealth management.

The basic conflict will be between old firms and new—startups are re-imagining financial services processes from top to bottom, while incumbent financial services firms are trying to keep up with new products of their own.

Both sides face serious obstacles—traditional banks and financial services firms are investing heavily in innovation, but leveraging their investments is difficult with so much invested in legacy systems and profit centers.

Meanwhile, startups are struggling to navigate a rapidly-changing regulatory landscape and must scale up quickly with limited resources.

The blockchain is a wild card that could completely overhaul financial services. Both major banks and startups around the world are exploring the technology behind the blockchain, which stores and records Bitcoin transactions. This technology could lower the cost of many financial activities to near-zero and could wipe away many traditional banking activities completely.

This exclusive report also:

Explains the main growth drivers of the exploding fintech ecosystem.

Frames the challenges and opportunities faced by incumbents and startups.

Breaks down global and regional fintech investments, including which regions are the most significant and which are poised for the highest growth.

Reveals which two financial services are garnering the most investment, and are therefore likely to be transformed first and fastest by fintech

Explains why blockchain technology is critically important to banks and startups, and assesses which players stand to gain the most from it.

Explores the financial sectors facing disruption and breaks them down in terms of investments, vulnerabilities and growth opportunities.

And much more.

The Fintech Ecosystem Report: Measuring the effects of technology on the entire financial services industry is how you get the full story on the fintech revolution.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide to the fintech revolution, choose one of these options:

Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP

Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the fast-moving world of financial technology.

Attendees at this weekend’s Hackers Congress Paralelni Polis were able to buy Red Bull from a vending machine using bitcoin. The three-day hacking congress sponsored by the Institute of Cryptoanarchy was held in Holešovice, near Prague. The vending machine at the hackers congress is one of several concepts that Red Bull has come up with […]

IBM has invested $200 million USD in the Watson Internet of Things (IoT) global headquarters in Munich, Germany, including new IoT capabilities related to blockchain. IBM will support Watson IoT Technologies efforts to deliver insights from billions of sensors in cars, drones, machines, ball bearings, equipment and even hospitals, according to a press release. The […]